Jim Franks - Hold Fast to That Which is Good

well brethren it goes without saying that we're living in very troubling times the election of course uh almost two weeks ago now uh if it taught us nothing else it's taught us that there is a great division uh in our country but it's not just in our country it's in the world the world seems to be more divided now than it ever has been there seem to be more things going on around the world of diverse things that you might say things that are causing political unrest and violence and that's in all parts of the world i've also learned and i think all of us have learned i hope we have that as a christian our christian perspective and i believe the bible is abundantly clear that we are citizens of another kingdom we pray for god's will when it comes to the selection of leaders and we pray for those leaders once selected that's a part of who we are and what we do but if we lose our focus during that period of time we allow ourselves to be caught up in some of the disputes of the world it leads to more difficulty because you see if our mission isn't the same today as it was before the election if our goal and direction isn't the same today as it was before the election then there must have been something wrong with our goal and direction and i don't believe that's true from a physical perspective obviously things change when there's an election from a spiritual perspective if they change then that probably means we were pursuing the wrong mission and the wrong goal beforehand because we must be clear the true spiritual goal and direction and mission doesn't change and we should be very clear about that but all of this creates problems and difficulties in the world and certainly in our own country i was reminded of the introduction to thomas paine's uh i guess it's an essay called the crisis or the american crisis and it's the famous line that we're all familiar with he says you know these are the days that tribe and souls are actually these are the times that try men's souls but he goes on in that message to say this it says tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic this was written december 23 1776 it is surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country all nations and ages have been subject to them their duration is always short the mind soon grows through them and acquires a firmer habit than before but their peculiar advantage is that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy and bring things and men to light which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered i believe there's some truth to that that in the difficult times you begin to see a character and other issues that make up a person and sometimes it's very discouraging let's go to matthew chapter 24 to begin with this afternoon matthew chapter 24 the olivet prophecy jesus christ uttered these words rather powerful and profound and words that have resonated with all of us as a part of the church of god for many many years verse 34. christ said assuredly absolutely he says i promise he says i say to you this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place now what did christ mean by this generation would not pass away i think we've always understood that to mean and it's certainly confirmed in the book of revelation that once things begin to happen they will happen very quickly uh once that uh flood gate is opened it isn't going to be closed and it's going to happen very quickly the speed of what's happened with just this pandemic this past year has been absolutely incredible 188 nations nations now considering lockdown some nations locking down because the virus is still around eight months ago none of us would have conceived that at least i don't think so eight months in the bigger scheme of things is really a very short period of time as to how quickly things can be turned on their ear you know the term generation has actually two very clear meanings a generation is defined one definition is the number of years it takes for children to be born and grow up to adulthood and have children of their own this is normally considered about 20 years to 40 years the second definition a generation can also be defined as everyone alive at one time normally there are four defined age groups given different names today that are alive at one time four distinct groups sociologists tell us today that in their again i don't know how what we would mean by history but in their uh their research of the years that people have been doing this i guess we see today the largest gap between the oldest living generation and the youngest generation when it comes to values when it comes to life experience i want to talk a little about life experience and how that affects all of us those in the older generation lived back in the previous century they lived at a time that was very different than today their values and principles were forged by their life experiences we must understand we cannot expect the younger generation to have the same life experience as we did and therefore their values their principles and again i'm speaking in general of the world not necessarily of the church although we're affected as well those values and principles were or are affected by their life experiences and sometimes we forget that you know they have various names to the generations as they call them today based on principles from the you know the boomer generation and on and on it goes in their different names to identify them but the oldest generation and the youngest generation have the largest gap in values morals and principles of any ever alive at one time that shouldn't surprise us as i said think about this think about a person born in the year 2000 where two decades into this period of time 20 years ago consider that a generation what is the current generation a current 20 year old today a sophomore in college what is his or her life experience consider this yeah if you read it i i believe you'll see that obviously there's a difference in what previous generations experienced in the year 2000 there was a threat that y2 called y2k that was going to bring it into all record keeping i'm not anywhere near an expert when it comes to computers but as i understand it they're based on a binary system of zeros and ones so we were told leading up to the year 2000 that come 2000 january 1 and midnight when everything flips over that all the data would be lost the computers would revert back to the year 1900 and everything would be lost that was a very serious issue back in the late 1990s leading up to the year 2000. we even had a packet of information i remember very clearly we had a presentation at that time the leadership of the church we had a presentation explaining exactly how this was going to happen and what a disaster it was going to be the church put together a whole packet of information sent out to every church area every pastor to explain what a disaster this could potentially be i believe millions of dollars were spent things were corrected and 2000 came along and it didn't happen but there was a fear there was a panic in some ways that went on even at that time and even somewhat in the church again i don't think it was as big a deal in the church but that's the year a 20 year old was born in 2001 the 9 11 attack on the twin towers in new york occurred in 2003 u.s troops invaded iraq which began a war that is today the longest war in american history at 17 years and counting 2004 facebook was launched by mark zuckerberg at harvard the young entrepreneur launches the online social media and networking service along with his roommates eduardo savarine andrew mccollum dustin moskowitz and chris hughes 2005 terrorists hit london leaving 56 dead and 700 injured from a series of suicide attacks targeting morning commuters in london in 2007 steve jobs launches the first iphone from apple in 2007 a global financial crisis it had not been since the great depression occurs in 2011 the u.s elections first african-american president barack obama on december the 17th 2010 tariq el tayed mohammed bouazizi a 26 year old tunisian street vendor sets himself on fire as part of a government protest that is credited with beginning the arab spring before it ended the governments in libya egypt yemen syria and bahrain were either overthrown or severely affected the map of the middle east changed overnight at that time the country of syria of course was involved in a very divisive civil war obviously civil war is divisive and it's still going on today the the death toll stands at 250 000 in syria half the population of syria has either been killed or displaced during this period of time 2011 saw the raid in pakistan that killed osama bin laden 2013 boston was the location of a terrorist bombing during the marathon that killed three and injured 264 others terrorism was alive and well in the united states 2015 greece becomes the first developed country to default on a loan from the international monetary fund they defaulted on a 1.7 billion dollar payment their 188 nations in the international monetary fund in greece became the first ever to default 2015 same-sex marriage is legalized in all 50 states in the united states 2015 on february the 13th a terrorist attack on a theater in paris took the lives of 90 people and injured 413 combined with other attacks at the same time in the area 130 total people died 2016 britain votes to leave the european union june of 2016 omar mateen went on a shooting spree in a gay nightclub in orlando florida killing 46 people 2016 donald trump is elected the 45th president of the united states october the 1st 2017 stephen paddock a 64-year-old man from mesquite nevada opened uh fire upon those attending the route 91 harvest music festival on the las vegas strip in 15 minutes he fired 1 000 rounds of ammunition killing 60 people and wounding in 2017 facebook hits 2 billion global users for the first time today the number is 2.7 billion one-third of the earth's population in 2018 apple becomes the first public company to be worth one trillion dollars in 2020 the coronavirus becomes the worst pandemic in 100 years if you're a 20 year old today that is your life experience that's what you've lived through it is what has shaped who you are in many ways it's what shaped many of your principles and morals again i'm speaking in general hopefully certainly not in the church but in general what's occurred we are two decades into this new century and you get the feeling we're being prepared for something even more powerful and more dramatic identified as the end of the age it is no exaggeration to say that these past 20 years have been characterized as extremely violent with staggering changes in values lgbq were just letters in the alphabet 40 years ago but in two decades in the 21st century it refers to a group of people who have a lifestyle described as immoral in scripture and today this group is a is a viable part of every political movement in this country all in a generation for the past twenty years from six hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand abortions have been reported to the cdc annually the numbers have dropped to the lowest level in this century in the last 10 years but considered 800 000 per year we have 2200 abortions every day at 600 000 a year we have 1700 every day in the last 20 years since 2000 there have been 14 million reported abortions to put that in perspective the united states we have 50 states only four states have more than 14 million people in the state california new york florida and texas consider any state you want in wiping out that entire state in this last generation those are the staggering numbers that we're dealing with in one generation we go berserk over a pandemic that has taken the lives of 240 000 people in less than a year we don't bat an eye to the 600 000 abortions since the pandemic began and 14 million in this generation alone so how does a 20 year old navigate all of this it is easy to judge and even condemn the current generation but for them their life experience has been built around social media expansion unpopular wars terrorist attacks a society that has always accepted homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle and political division they've grown up in a society that requires them to repeat certain phrases social justice systemic racism and use politically correct language not because they may believe it but because if they don't say it they find themselves bullied and they find themselves outside of what is now considered mainstream this is the life experience of a 20 year old no wonder those that are the oldest generation can look at this generation and wonder what's happening to them but it's not only this generation that's affected these are also our life experiences and the things that have changed so much of the world remember a 20 year old can't change or control what he has experienced this should help us understand how difficult it is not only for young people but for all ages in this generation to deal with the world around them and to be able to see clearly where we're going and what we must do my question this afternoon is how does a 20 year old navigate such a world given his life experience and how do we three other generations navigate such a world since we are also a part of this generation by the definition that everyone alive at one time is one generation we're all a part of this generation and we're all affected every single day is this the last generation is this the generation christ spoke of in matthew chapter 24. remember at some point in time that will be fulfilled it will be that generation which will be everyone alive at that time who will experience what christ described in matthew 24. how do we deal with all of that what does this generation face how will we survive spiritually my answer this afternoon is actually found in the preteen and the teen virtual camps this past summer that you may not have been aware of they choose a theme every year they chose a theme this year that i thought was quite poignant they chose it long before the pandemic and of course we were unable to hold classes or actually hold camps this year their theme this year was firmly anchored holding fast to what is good holding fast to what is good i believe within this phrase lies the answer going forward into the future satan will do everything he can to destroy that relationship and by all means our relationship with god and by all means including our own life experiences in a world that consistently labels evil as good the great challenge that we're all going to face young and old and everything in between is holding fast in a period of time that's going to be so disruptive with so much upheaval that it becomes so much easier to simply accept it and move on that's the challenge consider daniel chapter 7 and verse 25 daniel 7 verse 25 this is a to me an unusual verse in the middle of an unusual prophecy oh and i'm i'll read it to you from the king james version because this is the version that gives me the word i'm looking for so i'm going to use it uh daniel chapter 7 verse 25 is breaking into a prophecy it describes the prophecy of the ten horns the little horn and and it talks about the little horn we're talking about the end time and here's what it says in verse 25 and he shall speak great words this little horn against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high wear out the saints i believe it says persecute in the new king james so that really doesn't tell you what this word means this is the only place in scripture that this word is used the phrase wearing out it's only place it's actually not hebrew it's aramaic in the aramaic it actually means emotionally mentally and psychologically to wear you down daniel predicted a time when this false prophet's on the scene when there's this powerful religious leader a powerful political leader on the scene and he says they're going to wear you out and you know what it says in the verse is following that they will be successful to a degree until god stops it it is a challenge that we must must face and must acknowledge that we all get worn out by it all i'm probably no different than you i got just you just get worn out with all that's going on right now even in our own country but consider if you lived in another country i was reading the news this morning from the ivory coast from cote d'ivoire and they just had an election on october the 31st and they've had consistent violence since then 85 people reported this morning having been killed in the violence but here's how the election went you talk about our country here's how their election went uh leading up to october the 31st there were 44 candidates for president one of them was the incumbent current president he was seeking a third term or is was seeking a third term just before the election an election commission declared 40 of the 44 candidates ineligible just declared them all ineligible and so that left four candidates well of the four candidates two of them were declared ineligible because of corruption one had actually mounted a coup in cote d'ivoire in 1999. so they were declared in hell left only two candidates to vote for on october the 31st the incumbent president got 94 of the vote hence all of the violence that's occurred since then that's just a typical election in many parts of the world it wears you out what are what if you're a member living in another country and certainly even in our own country and you see this year after year after year after year you get worn out it wears you down now this word uh there's an equivalent hebrew word in the old testament to this one for wearing down and it's actually as i said a hebrew word it's it's found in several places but has a similar meaning genesis 18 verse 12 is the usage of this word you don't have to turn there but it's where sarah is told that she's going to have a child at quite an elderly age and it says she laughs when she heard it she was told she would have a child at her age and she then asked well when she's challenged on it she asked well how is this possible and she uses the term i'm old and worn out and it's the same hebrew term as we find in the equivalent the the aramaic term in daniel chapter 7 verse 25 worn out i'm just worn down you get worn down by it all so how do we address all of this how do we work our way through it how do we navigate it i believe there is an answer and i believe the answer is found and this is the title of my sermon hold fast without hold fast to what is good hold fast of what is good and the alternate expression is hold fast without wavering this is a principle that we're going to talk about now today there are at least seven scriptures in the new testament where christ used the term little faith in talking about his disciples let's go to luke chapter 22 luke chapter 22 this is where christ referred to peter luke chapter 22. christ talks about peter and he says this i mean this has to be one of the more astounding things if you're peter of your entire experience with jesus christ luke 22 31 the lord said simon simon indeed satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat satan has asked for you that he may sift you as sweet now that's an unusual conversation i don't know how you begin that that conversation you know where do you start with and of course we don't have everything that was said but to turn to someone to and say well satan wants you satan really wants you he wants to sift you like wheat now growing up on the farm we used to grind our own corn grind it into cornmeal and you would have various levels of a sieve that would uh you would have a one that had bigger holes and you'd go through the first and you go through another and to get it down to cornmeal you had to go through several of them to get it down to that particular level in sifting it through so i sort of imagine what christ was saying to peter is you know he's going to come at you and come at you and come at you sifting like wheat is not a one-time event this is something that he's going to do until he wears you down and that's satan's operation satan he has whatever time he has and he knows that it's a matter of wearing you down and he comes at you from every angle every day consistently to wear you down the christ goes on to say but i have prayed for you now what did christ pray for peter that you have a lot of money that you have a great job that you have you never get sick that you have all of these things all these blessings he didn't say that what did he say i prayed for you that your faith should not fail and when you have returned to me strengthen your brethren the prayer for peter in the face of being told satan is after you i believe we could say the same thing today satan is after us he really is and so christ looks at us and he says i'm praying that your faith doesn't fail now we think in other ways we think well you know i hope god will let me get this job i hope god will take care of this i hope god will do that i hope god keeps me from getting sick i hope you know and i hope and i hope and i hope when was the last time we simply put it into god's hands it says you know please increase my faith i really need more faith i really really do christ said that to peter christ did not pray that peter would never become ill or experience any difficulties but in the face of difficulties and trials that his faith would not fail the worst thing that we can that can be said of any of us is that our faith failed not that we even became ill or that we became ill and died or that we struggled in life we were never wealthy or great the worst thing that can be said about us is that our faith failed that's a problem and that of course is the opposite of how we should face the challenges ahead look at luke chapter 18. luke chapter 18 is the famous parable about the important widow but on the heels of this parable in verse 7 christ said this and shall god not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them there are things in life that god will not take away there are things in life that you and i must endure day after day after day after day that's a part of life god just doesn't take it all away he says though he bears long with them i tell you that he will avenge them speedily god will there is a day of reckoning it is coming but he says nevertheless when the son of man comes will he really find faith on the earth to my knowledge the new king james is the only translation that uses the word really king james doesn't he says will he find faith the new king james adds really fine faith and i've been curious about that want to find out why why is this the only translation the king james and the new king james come from the same uh the same greek text so why is the word really well if you do a little more study you'll find that the word find here is one of great feeling great feeling it's not just the word well i feel like you found something you stumble over it walking around but it's something that has a depth of feeling emotion to it so in the king james in order to bring that emotion out instead of having the word find it's they added the word really to give emphasis to the word find will he really find faith on the earth this is a point of great consternation we see to jesus christ at this point in barnes notes it says this the truth that he had been teaching was that god would deliver his people from their calamities and save them though he suffered them to be long tried he asked them here whether when he comes he should find this faith or a belief of his truth among his followers would they be found persevering in prayer and believing that god would yet avenge them or would they cease to pray always and faint robertson's new testament word picture says this it is not clear whether this sentence is is also a question or a positive statement is it a question or a positive statement there is no way to decide either will make sense though not quite the same sins on the whole the entire interrogative is probably correct it's probably a question meaning to question if the son will find a persistence of faith like that of the widow when he does return you know there's some startling statistics today that you you can find very easily as i said the the difference in the gap between the youngest generation the 20 year old and the 60 year old and the older generation or the oldest generation is larger than it's ever been there is very little it seems again in a world issue there's very little association between the two in the in the world where we live and you can see that churches or religion has consistently failed not just this generation but previous generations uh it's statistically true that only one out of every three teenagers that sitting in church today will actually attend church when they're out on their own one out of three is what it amounts to and you can begin to see why uh religion today has become a mockery in many ways it's become in somewhat places a circus uh we have individuals who just this past year just this past month predicted the return of jesus christ on the last great day we have others that are that are predicting that uh president trump is sort of like a king in the old testament and that he's that god's going to perform a miracle and he has to be the next president there are people making those predictions in the name of religion is there any reason why a young person of 20 years old would be attracted to that at all the mockery that's being made of religion all around us is incredible and you can see why a 20 year old would say well i don't really want to be a part of that what if the one problem or what is the one problem that pops up over and over again the one problem that never gets discussed and that's really the issue of faith when is the last time we addressed the issue or you addressed the issue or you heard the issue addressed of having more faith now maybe you have i'm sure obviously things have been said think about it in the terms of the holy days the last holy day of festival this year was the last great day it will now be six months before there will be another festival and that will be the passover you probably i'm sure you know this you may not have thought of it in this way all of the festivals appear in a six-month period of time all of them occur in a six-month period of time or at least a portion of that according to the hebrew calendar there are exactly 177 days every single year 177 days between nice and one and history one the beginning of the year and the feast of trump it's 177 days they're always 163 days between passover and trumpets every single year so within a little over 177 days all of the festivals take place and then we come to this kind of dark period of time where we go for six months without a single festival again you you can have your own reasons or at least you can imagine why why did god do it that way of course you know the agricultural principles and all of that but there's also a picture here it's a picture of holding on during a time of darkness holding on during a time when when you don't have the uplift and the the of course the enthusiasm and excitement of a festival but to hold on without wavering to not fail you know it used to be years ago and some of you were probably a part of that where you would hear every year at the feast at least i remember hearing it as a child that some of you will not be here next year that it's just a foregone conclusion that some of you will not be a part of the church a year from now from one feast to the next and those years all we had were the feasts and to get together we had no local congregations so people over extended periods of time of being alone without the support of others becomes so much easier to fail to fail in that period of darkness that we go through you know faith is not exclusively tied to healing which some people try to make it there is a misnomer sometimes among people that has thrived over the years if you had if you had faith you would be healed while faith and healing are associated one must be careful not to jump to the conclusion that if you only had more faith you would be healed christ healed many people who had no faith and he praised people who knew little about him or what he taught as having great truth or sorry as having great faith healing is a personal promise from god and not an institutional promise it isn't a promise that just because you attend church therefore you must be healed it is a personal promise that god makes that you and i can claim as christians as followers of god's way our responsibility each and every one of us as christians when a brother or sister is sick is to pray in faith for god's mercy and intervention it is our place to encourage support and cry out to god the rest is up to god that is not what some people think of as faith when the disciples ask christ to increase their faith another famous dialogue that took place between christ and his disciples he did not answer them directly he did not say go do one two three and four and you will increase your faith he didn't say keep more sad you know keep the sabbath better keep the holy days better do all of these things better and you will have more faith now he didn't say you shouldn't do any of those things either what did he say luke chapter 17 a little further along in this chapter luke 17 and again in verse 5. luke 17 right going back a chapter luke 17 verse 5. he says and the disciples said to the lord increase our faith they became aware as they matured with christ that faith is a big deal faith is a big deal you know if you stop and think about it and again i'm not trying to give a political statement but there was a time when a political campaign said you know it's the economy stupid it's the economy you know that's that's it again i'm not calling anybody stupid but it's faith that's the issue that's the point it's faith it's a big deal it's a big deal and each and every one of us must answer for the faith that we individually have no one else can give it to you the disciples asked christ well how do we increase our faith what did he say how did he answer that well he didn't answer directly but he gave a story first of all he said if you have faith as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree be pulled up by the roots and and pla be planted in the in the sea and it would obey you and which of you having a servant plowing or rending i'm sorry tending sheep will say to him when he has come in from the field come at once and sit down and eat but we'll be but will he not rather say to him prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till i have eaten and drunk and afterward you will eat and drink does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him i think not so likewise verse 10 so likewise you when you have done all those things which you are commanded say we are unprofitable servants we have done what you what was our duty to do the point christ is making is that if you're a servant and you're out working in the field when you come in you're a servant when you come in your work isn't over just because you did what was immediately asked of you so what christ is saying to the disciples is you're a servant 24 hours a day so he can never say well i did my job therefore give me this he says you are always a servant always a servant and if you go above and beyond your faith will increase above and beyond your faith will increase it's not just a matter of how many sabbaths have you observed or how many holy days you've been to or how many feasts you've attended it's have you gone above and beyond are you prepared to help others are you prepared to serve are you prepared to commit your life that's how you increase faith that's how you increase faith you go beyond the eight you know the the eight to five or nine to five whatever it may be that a person would be assigned to work you never leave that job as a servant let's go to hebrews i think you can't talk about faith without going to hebrews hebrews chapter 11. there are two verses here that become very important in this whole subject hebrews 11 verse 1 now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and then verse 6 but without faith it is impossible to please him faith is a big deal faith is a big deal without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him this is an unusual chapter chapter 11 called the faith chapter it has there are 16 times in this chapter where it says by faith enoch by faith noah by faith by faith by faith by faith they're pointing out that it was all done how by personal uh strength uh by personal wealth by faith by faith by faith six thousand years have gone by and the those that god has pointed out certainly those in scripture he says by faith by faith by faith faith is a big deal faith is a big deal now if you look at the the bible as a book which we obviously do you'll find that often when god makes statements such as this you know now faith is we start chapter 11 with there's often a set up for that in other words you don't it doesn't just come without context now my personal feeling is the apostle paul wrote the book of hebrews that's what i've felt all my life i've seen it i realized there are challenges to that but that paul wrote it i think it sounds like paul but in chapter 10 there's the set up for chapter 11. rest of the sermon i want to go to chapter 10 because i believe this is what sets up our understanding of faith and what gives us our direct orders as to how we're going to survive the challenges ahead because the challenges ahead are going to be very severe let me just read a portion of hebrews chapter 10 and then we're going to come back because in chapters 10 i believe are embedded the lead up to chapter 11. chapter 11 talks about something that's already happened it's all about something that you already have chapter 10 describes what you have in terms that i believe we can understand and it becomes a part of who we are chapter 10 beginning in verse 19. it says therefore brethren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh and having a high priest over the house of god verse 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water verse 23 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promises faithful verse 24 and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching this begins the setup this tells us where we're going and we're going to talk about faith as a fact in chapter 11. then go to verse 32 but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great struggle with sufferings partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated for you had compassion on me and my change and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves and it says in the new king james in heaven your margin says this is not found in heaven isn't found in all of the translations again we can understand it that our you know reward is in heaven that doesn't mean you're going to heaven but it makes a lot more sense if the words in heaven certainly don't appear there verse 35 therefore do not cast away your confidence which has great reward for you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of god you may receive the promise for yet a little while and he who is coming will come and will not tarry now the just shall live by faith that's quoted from romans and it's also quoted from the book of habakkuk the just shall live by faith but if anyone draws back my soul has no pleasure in him in verse 39 for we are not of those who draw back to perdition but those who believe to the saving of the soul so let's back up a moment there are several things in this chapter and in these verses that lay the groundwork for what faith really is and how faith should act in all of us or how faith should cause all of us to act notice verses 23 and 24 these are a couple of the key verses it says let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works the term hold fast in verse 23 comes from a greek term that means to hold back to prevent from drifting to used as a nautical term of a ship to prevent it from heading in the wrong direction the whole fast means more than to simply hold on it implies taking a pre-emptive action as you see the boat before it begins to even drift you take you take a preemptive action the verb or the word here in in the greek has the implication of a preemptive action you're not just standing there holding on but you're doing something to prevent a fall from occurring the word faith here is actually unusual that's used here in verse 20 3 as well it's actually the more common word for hope in fact this is the only time this greek word is translated faith in the new testament every other time it's translated hope and it implies of course again what hope really tells us it's the uh the word means anticipation looking forward with confidence as i said it's the only place it's translated faith everywhere else it's translated hope and then finally the word wavering comes from the greek word that means not leaning firm and upright it is used often of ships that they maintain balance especially in rough waters whatever is going on around the person he is upright the test of true christianity is how we react in the middle of the storms in these verses paul provides us with five things that help us to establish our faith help us to establish the groundwork for what we should be and and what we should continue to be these five things are found here verse 22 let us draw near with a true heart uh verse 23 let us hold fast our possession of faith uh number three verse 24 let us consider one another number four verse 32 let us call to remembrance the former days and those who were with us in verse 38 live by faith this is all the prelude to what paul describes in the faith chapter in chapter 11. let's consider each one of these take a look at how they impact our lives what does it mean to have a true heart it means it's genuine there's nothing false about you you speak from the heart and you act from the heart you know we're told in matthew 7 verse 21 that those who give lip service to god and his way of life are certainly not going to get a good response from god it's called lip service this is not lip service this is truly from the heart a true heart and over the years i had the opportunity as a church pastor to visit many many people in many many homes certainly in the hundreds if not even more there were periods of time where i visited every single day of the week you know except for the sabbath probably you were visiting new people and you always had this wondering in the back of your mind well will they actually in those years you contacted a minister and he would come visit you before you ever came to church and so you'd go visit them and sort of in the back your mind will this person actually show up will they really come to church now there are those that do and they're those that don't i always remember this one young couple in new england when i was a pastor there and they didn't i didn't hear from them i didn't know them they showed up at church one day they rode a bicycle to church in new england in the fall of the year and they were in downtown boston they were going to school they were both students and they rode a bicycle now church met in a place called concord massachusetts it was 20 miles from boston they rode a bicycle to church and showed up and then and they obviously didn't know very much about it they were there they somehow had found us and they came which was all fine and i met them talked to them introduced myself and asked to visit them and i visited them in a little apartment in the center of boston just off government square in boston they were students at boston university well the obvious question came up at least in my mind were they married no they were not and they had their little apartment again even at that time for them that was that seemed fine we were living together we could share expenses we were you know we'll get married one day and we're together so i went through and explained that thinking well i'll never see them again but as i was explaining it to them you could see on their faces that they understood right away and they agreed completely that well yeah that's that's right and you it was sort of you began to not judge people but you began to see the open heart the desire the sincerity would come out because sometimes you would visit people and you would spend four and five hours i've left many homes at three and four in the morning having talked all night and you see the the willingness of heart the sincerity of heart they don't have it all together but it's that pure heart that true heart and sure enough they came to church two weeks later again and they were now married and they were happy to come see me and they became true pillars in a congregation in new england over the years but i always thought of that true heart and what that means there was no deception there there was no trying to hide anything there it was a true heart that's what god wants that's what leads to faith when you're not what you pretend to be or what you're trying to pretend to be you're not going to be building faith it's a sham but that true heart is so important the second piece of advice that paul gives is found also in verse 23 he talks about hold fast hold fast you know hold fast doesn't mean just stand still doesn't just mean to stand still if you know if you think of flying an airplane if an airplane goes into a stall there's only one thing that's going to happen it's going to fall it will i'll guarantee you it'll fall if again if you don't come out of the stall if you do nothing if you try to sit there in the air you're going to fall the same principle works in life you can't just stand still that's not the way you increase faith the third piece of advice that paul gives is found in verse 24. he says consider one another and provoke to love and good works we provoke individuals in several ways but the most important way is by our conduct i wish i you know if if i could solve all the problems for all of us by giving one sermon that would be great the best piece of advice i ever got when i started out or many many years ago was that don't think you're going to save the church with one sermon one message or one article it just isn't going to happen people are more moved by who you are and in their your conduct as opposed to your words even the most powerful and moving sermon you could ever give it has a limited impact now again i'm not saying people's lives haven't been changed because they heard something one time that's certainly been true but the principle is true changes occur because they you provoke someone to good works not by your words by your deeds you provoke them to good words now the word provoke here is often used negatively at least in the english language but at that particular time the word provoked didn't have a negative meaning it meant to arouse to excite to call to action so to encourage people it wasn't a negative thing you're not provoking them in the sense that we think of it today you know i i think about church and what what what church really means and certainly i think about what it means to me and i believe means to many of you as well it's not just coming to hear a message it's coming to be with people there's a camaraderie and a unity about that that cannot be replaced in any other way as a young pastor i many again go back a number of years ago and a pastor for many years every congregation i served in every sabbath that i went to church i had i had a goal in mind my goal was to speak to every single member in the congregation every single sabbath and i pastored congregations in new england of 800 people a congregation in houston of 670 people and i can tell you i left services many times frustrated because i knew i didn't talk to everyone but and i would often joke to the members that i didn't need someone to tell me who was at church and who wasn't i knew from standing as a sermon i knew who was there who wasn't there partly because they all sat in the same seats every week and i made that comment one time in services and then the a couple of weeks later i got up to give the sermon and i got dizzy because they weren't in the same seats so they had decided how they did it this was before you know email and all of that they they decided before church they would all swap seats and see if i really was true to what i said and so everybody on the right side moved to the left side everybody on the left moved to the right and it actually made me nauseous and dizzy to look up and i didn't see people in the right place but i knew where they were and my goal every sabbath was to talk to them because i knew my interaction through a sermon was that was good i hope it was good but my interaction personally was going to be more important for me and for them to provoke you provoke people by being with them you provoke them by being with them that's a big part of what the church is number four paul said remember the past he says remember what it was like when you were called remember what it was like when you were illuminated and remember those who were there with you going through the same experience now i dare say that all of us remember the people that were either baptized with us or that were in the church at the time we came into the church and we formed a bond with those people that again there are some that aren't around there are some that are deceased but we still have that bond because we were going through the same things together the same things together and we learned the truth together i got a really good piece of advice when i was baptized a number of years ago the individual that baptized me he said go go tonight you're going to be baptized tomorrow which was the evening before passover that year and he said write yourself a letter and detail exactly how you feel be as expressive as you can because it's only for you describe how you feel at this moment in time and i did and he said every year before passover pull that letter out and read it and see where you are in light of that and there's something of value i think that's what paul is saying here think about how you felt when you came into this the enthusiasm the excitement and those who were there with you i remember as clearly today as you know 10 years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago the people who were in the church when we first came into the church again many of them are either deceased or not around anymore but i remember them because we were going through the same things together loss of jobs because of the feast we went through the same trials and difficulties together and formed a bond number five paul says it very simply sort of a summary statement that we walk by faith verse 38 this tells us that faith is an everyday activity and not a weekly exercise how much faith do you have today and what will you do today how can you show your faith today james said it very clearly faith without works is dead that we need that as well you know faith is worth fighting for faith is worth fighting for i read a book a number actually was a play a number of years ago called the death of a salesman it was actually a play written by arthur miller in 1949 it's a story of willie lowman a traveling salesman who hits a midlife crisis he begins to feel the wear and tear of the years he was a salesman for 40 years and he always felt that he was fake he always had to stretch things he always had to be something different than who he was and over time he became worn out and his family rejected him because they didn't they saw this fake person and they never saw the real person and he was just worn out and of course it's a very sad story because he commits suicide drives his speeding car into a brick wall or whatever and kills himself because he felt so fake and he was worn out being something he wasn't he could never feel comfortable being himself daniel called it wearing out the saints wearing out the saints you know sadly over the years i've seen people even in the church who just get worn out and sometimes again people take take their own lives that's happened as well one of the very first funerals that i ever did at the age of 24 was for a suicide and the family was deeply grieving because of that but again people get worn out i'm not suggesting obviously that's not a good good way to approach it but people get worn out it is possible to do that it's really possible there's a story that was given a number of years ago i don't think it's a true story but i think it makes a point about faith it's a story of an old man crossing the mojave desert in the days of the pioneers there's an old timer by the name of desert pete in this story he blazed the trail through the desert and actually lived in the desert for much of his life when he died he dug a well in the middle of the desert deep enough to reach the water table and he put an old hand pump on the well he left a message for anyone who would stumble on the well this man stumbled upon the well and he was dying of thirst as the story goes and he found desert pete's message saying that a jug of water was buried in the ground about 10 feet away and he should dig that water up and he shouldn't drink it he should prime the pump with it and he'll have all the water he would ever want to drink and then he can provide it for someone else of course that was the challenge you're you're dying of thirst and you have a jug of water what do you do now for those who've you know been around uh you know pumping water you know growing up that was one of my jobs on the farm is we had a well but it wasn't deep enough to provide drinking water but it provided water for other things that we would fill barrels and then kept go out and pump it and you had to take water and you had to prime that pump you had to swell those gaskets in order to get a suction in order to pump it if you didn't have water to prime it with you weren't going to get anything out of that well that's the point here are you willing to take that water that you have now and use it so others can benefit how does your faith benefit others how does your faith benefit you you know faith isn't just it is it is personal it's private in one sense but your faith your faith affects others you inspire and encourage others you provoke others by your faith that's very very important we're living in a generation that the world has never seen the like before could it actually be that faithless generation in the end time could it actually be the generation that faces all of the things that christ talked about in the olivet prophecy our ultimate struggle is to increase our faith in the middle of a faithless generation maybe we are that last generation it sure feels like it especially today prophecy prophecy is being fulfilled at a rapid clip tragedies will continue death is a part of life you know the scripture tells us that the death of a saint is precious in god's sight we need to take god at his word and realize that's really true not that we want anyone to lose his life not that we want to see anyone taken away from this precious opportunity but it happens i think in the last three weeks at least the two of my classmates from college have died but if someone dies in the faith that's the term we use in the faith their death is precious in the eyes of god and therefore should be precious to us as well and we should thank god for their lives and thank god for the faith that provoked others you know we are to hold fast to the profession of our faith hold fast the profession of your faith don't let go and do not waver paul said have a true heart hold fast provoke one another remember the past and those who were there with you and walk by faith god is real you are one of his children and the kingdom is coming what happens with an election as we just witnessed who god allows to lead this nation is in his hands what you are and what you become is in your hands and that's important faith is a big deal you

Channel: COGWA Dallas

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Length: 59min 20sec (3560 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021